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Chickenpox becomes new challenge at U.S.-Mexican border as migrants continue to crowd shelters

Mirsa Garcia Ramos and her 2-year-old daughter Briseba Aracely left Guatemala and sought asylum in the United States more than a month ago. After processing the family, U.S. immigration officials sent them to Mexicali to await a judge’s ruling on their case.

They’ve been living at a shelter in the Mexican border city and more than a week ago, little Briseba Aracely developed a fever and an itchy rash across her belly and back. As of Monday, she had been sick eight days, and had cried through many sleepless nights, and still had fluid-filled blisters on her arms that haven’t yet turned to scabs.

Since late January, U.S. immigration officials have been forcing some Central American asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for judges to decide their cases; the controversial program took effect at the Calexico border crossing in mid-March. Now, as migrants crowd into shelters in Mexicali, facility operators and Mexican state health officials are dealing with a new challenge: At one shelter, at least a dozen adults and children, including Briseba Aracely, have developed chickenpox in the past month.

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Mirsa Garcia Ramos, a migrant who was returned to Mexico under the Migrant Protection Protocol asylum holds her daughter Briseba Aracely Camillo Garcia, 2, who shows symptoms of being infected by the chickenpox virus at a migrant shelter in Mexicali on May 14, 2019. (Photo: Omar Ornelas/The Desert Sun)

Migrant shelters along the border have been stretched thin since the fall, when thousands of people began arriving in caravans. The facilities have continued to swell, as the Trump Administration returns some Central American families to Mexico under its Migrant Protection Protocols. The number of asylum-seeking Central American families apprehended at the border reached an all-time high in April.

“What we don’t want is for this to get out of control and become an epidemic,” Tomas Diosdado, with the Alfa y Omega shelter, said in Spanish on Monday. There had been 17 cases of chickenpox at the shelter in the past month, he said.

“We are worried that this isn’t going to stop, and instead become more contagious,” he said.

Mirsa Garcia Ramos, a migrant who was returned to Mexico under the Migrant Protection Protocol asylum holds her daughter Briseba Aracely Camillo Garcia, 2, who shows symptoms of being infected by the chickenpox virus at a migrant shelter in Mexicali on May 14, 2019. Omar Ornelas/The Desert Sun

At far left, Maricela Lopez, a migrant who was returned to Mexico under the Migrant Protection Protocol asylum policy rests at the Casa de Ayuda Alfa y Omega migrant shelter. Lopez was not allowed into the U.S. for her court hearing after U.S. agents noticed she had symptoms of chickenpox. Omar Ornelas/The Desert Sun

Mirsa Garcia Ramos, a migrant who was returned to Mexico under the Migrant Protection Protocol asylum holds her daughter Briseba Aracely Camillo Garcia, 2, who shows symptoms of being infected by the chickenpox virus at a migrant shelter in Mexicali on May 14, 2019. Omar Ornelas/The Desert Sun

Mirsa Garcia Ramos, a migrant who was returned to Mexico under the Migrant Protection Protocol asylum holds her daughter Briseba Aracely Camillo Garcia, 2, who shows symptoms of being infected by the chickenpox virus at a migrant shelter in Mexicali on May 14, 2019. Omar Ornelas/The Desert Sun

Maricela Lopez, a migrant who was returned to Mexico under the Migrant Protection Protocol asylum policy was not allowed into the U.S. for her court hearing after U.S. agents noticed she had symptoms of chickenpox, still visible in this photo. Omar Ornelas/The Desert Sun

In recent months outbreaks of Chickenpox have broken out at migrant shelters in the city of Mexicali. Children are most vulnerable as they are not quarantined despite infection due to the lack of resources in the shelters and the health sector of the state of Baja California. Omar Ornelas/The Desert Sun

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Meanwhile, at a press conference Monday, a Baja California state health official, Oscar Efren Zazueta Fierro, said he was not overly concerned about the chickenpox cases at the Alfa y Omega shelter. He said there were 12 confirmed chickenpox cases at the shelter, explaining that some suspected cases had not been confirmed. None had required hospitalization, he said.

“It was recommended that they separate the patients, as best they can, until the last scab falls off,” Zazueta Fierro said.

At Alfa y Omega, however, shelter operators and health professionals said it would be challenging to prevent the spread of the disease — in part, because of limited vaccine supply and limited space to quarantine people.

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In recent months outbreaks of Chickenpox have broken out at migrant shelters in the city of Mexicali. Children are most vulnerable as they are not quarantined despite infection due to the lack of resources in the shelters and the health sector of the state of Baja California. (Photo: Omar Ornelas/The Desert Sun)

Chickenpox is a highly contagious disease caused by the varicella-zoster virus. It causes between 250 and 500 itchy blisters across the body, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus spreads easily from infected people to those who have never had the disease or never been vaccinated, so the best way to prevent it is with the vaccine, the CDC said.

On Monday morning, four Baja California health workers, two wearing masks over their mouths, arrived at the shelter to assess the chickenpox cases. That day, there were about 375 migrants sleeping in open rooms, some on beds and others on thin mats on the floor.

One of the health workers, Angel Vazquez de la O, said the disease was “benign.” Still, he called the situation at the shelter “very difficult.” The state health department doesn’t have enough chickenpox vaccine for all the recently arrived asylum seekers, he said, and the shelter doesn’t have room to quarantine the sick.

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Maricela Lopez, a migrant who was returned to Mexico under the Migrant Protection Protocol asylum policy was not allowed into the U.S. for her court hearing after U.S. agents noticed she had symptoms of chickenpox, still visible in this photo. (Photo: Omar Ornelas/The Desert Sun)

The facility also doesn’t have the funding to provide adequate medical care. Alfa y Omega used to get 45% of its funding from the federal government, according to facility officials, but President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador curtailed money for migrant shelters when he took office in December.

“If I had the money, I would bring in a medical specialist that would be here 24 hours a day,” shelter manager Aracely Aviles said in Spanish. “But find me a doctor who will work for free. There isn't one."

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At far left, Maricela Lopez, a migrant who was returned to Mexico under the Migrant Protection Protocol asylum policy rests at the Casa de Ayuda Alfa y Omega migrant shelter. Lopez was not allowed into the U.S. for her court hearing after U.S. agents noticed she had symptoms of chickenpox. (Photo: Omar Ornelas/The Desert Sun)

By Monday, Maricela Lopez, a Guatemalan asylum seeker who'd been returned to Mexico, had recovered from her bout of chickenpox. But she and her 6-year-old daughter’s faces were still covered in scars. And the disease has jeopardized her future in the U.S.

Lopez had tried to attend her first asylum hearing in San Diego a week earlier, but U.S. immigration officials saw the blisters on her face and body and, she said, denied her access into the country.

She returned to Mexicali without a new court date. She is uncertain what her options are now, she said.

Garcia Ramos, the mother of Briseba Aracely, said her first asylum hearing isn’t until June. She said the long wait in Mexicali, coupled with her daughter’s illness, has left her completely disillusioned.

“Sometimes I want to run away from this place,” she said.

Rebecca Plevin covers immigration for The Desert Sun. Reach her at rebecca.plevin@desertsun.com. Follow her on Twitter at @rebeccaplevin.